A little bit about myself: I studied law at Kiel University, where I met Tobias when we participated in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition at the Walther Schücking Institute of International Law. After finishing my law studies, I worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute, where I coached the 2004/2005 Jessup and was assistant editor of the German Yearbook of International Law. After my time at the Institute, I did the German judicial traineeship (Referendariat) and passed the bar exam in November of 2009.

My academic interests – much to the chagrin of my Ph.D. supervisor – have been less and less in public international law and more and more in international and comparative criminal law, particularly criminal procedure. My Ph.D. thesis is on “The Position of the Defendant in International Criminal Proceedings – The Influence of the Historiographic Function of International Criminal Courts on their Judicial Activities“; I defended it last summer and hope to have it published soon. International criminal law has also brought me to the “Legal Capital of the World” a couple of times – I clerked with Judge Kaul at the Pre-Trial Division of the International Criminal Court in the summer of 2006 and with the defence team of Dr. Radovan Karadzic in the summer of 2009.

My approach to ICL is mostly from a comparative perspective with a focus on fair trial rights/defence questions. My approach to international law is to some extent influenced by critical approaches to international law generally and Marxist/materialist approaches more concretely. Besides ICL, I am most interested in other areas of international law which directly impact the individual (human rights law, refugee law).

My off-blog-publications include a critical evaluation of the Statute for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Leiden Journal and a comment on Dr. Karadzic’s defence team troubles for the Hague Justice Portal.